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YKK. If you look for it, more often than not, it’s there on you. If you’re wearing clothes/accessories with zippers and or fastenings, that is. YKK is the largest zipper producer in the world. It’s actually a Japanese manufacturing group of companies, named after YoshidaKōgyōKabushiki gaisha. Which translates to Yoshida Manufacturing Shareholding Company. Yoshida comes from the name of the founder, Tadao Yoshida. Mr. Tadao founded YKK in 1934 in Tokyo.

YKK produces about half of the world’s zippers. Why is YKK everywhere and what makes it so popular? Apparently, the quality of YKK zippers beats out the competition. Tadao personally designed the machines and brought every part of the process of making zippers into his design: smelting its own brass, weaving the dyed cloth and forging the zipper teeth. YKK even makes the boxes they are shipped off in. YKK handles all aspects of the production process. Dependable quality and delivery, and only a few cents higher than the competition.

If you saw the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, you may have wondered why C-3PO’s arm is red. The movie was officially released to the public in the US on December 18, 2015. C-3PO #1 a one-shot ( a single issue in the series) comic book, was originally set to be released around the same time as the movie. However, the comic was delayed multiple times until Marvel got approval from J.J. Abrams, director of The Force Awakens.

Admiral Ackbar

The story told in the comic is as follows. Right before the events of The Force Awakens, Admiral Ackbar was taken hostage. A team attempts the rescue mission, but the ship crash lands and all life aboard the ship is lost except for the droids. The droids need to make it to a beacon. The beacon will tell the droids the location of Admiral Ackbar.

All of a sudden, these unnamed animal-like beings attack the droids. They try to fend them off, but there are too many of them. All of the droids are completely destroyed except for C-3PO and Omri. C-3PO’S arm is ripped off.

Omri

Omri and C-3PO escape the beasts and journey to the beacon, but it starts to rain. Acid rain falls from the sky. Omri sacrifices himself for the beacon and for the mission. The paint wears away from the acid rain of Omri’s arm, which reveals a red colored primer underneath. C-3PO is eventually rescued because a rebel pilot receives feedback from the beacon. Omri’s red arm is used to repair and replace C-3PO’s missing arm. Omri’s arm is used to serve as a reminder of the friends that C-3PO had made and lost. Omri, who was a prisoner on board the ship, decided that saving a new friend was more important than whose side of a war one is on.

The comic had a very serious tone, unlike the usual ones that make fun of C-3PO.

Even though the release of DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.’s much anticipated movie, Suicide Squad is months away, word of a Harley Quinn movie starring Margot Robbie has started to spread over the last three days. As a Suicide Squad spinoff, not only would Margot Robbie return to reprise her role as Harley Quinn, but she would also produce the film. Early reports about the film say it has a female screenwriter attached, rumored to be Tina Fey, though this has not yet been confirmed.

Very few details are known about the project, but The Hollywood Reporter states in an exclusive article about the project that, “In an interesting twist, the project is not a Quinn solo movie. Rather, it would focus on several of DC’s female heroes and villains, with names such as Batgirl and Birds of Prey surfacing.” DC has a strong line of heroines and ‘villainesses’ and has began to focus more on these characters as their female readership and fanbase has risen. The company recently released a line of comics and products called DC Superhero Girls in hope of targeting the young female demographic. The comics feature Quinn and other characters such as Batgirl, Poison Ivy, Katana, Harley’s fellow member of the Suicide Squad, plus many more iconic DC heroes and villains. With this new branch of DC, it is very possible that some of these characters may make an appearance in the movie. With all the history and popularity of Harley Quinn, the movie is a no- brainer for Warner Brothers.

Harley was originally created by writer Paul Dini as the sidekick and girlfriend of the joker, but to the surprise of many, she won the hearts of readers and has become one of DC’s most popular characters, out selling Wonder Woman in comics and merchandise. So even though the film has yet to be confirmed, fans can at least look forward to August 5, when Suicide Squad hits theaters.

We’ve all seen Pixar movies. I’m not saying we’ve all liked them, but we’ve all seen at least one. They create multiple universes that we could only dream of, but what if they weren’t multiple universes? What if they all took place in the same universe? What if they all existed on the same timeline? That’s a lot of ‘what if’s’, but there’s an answer that explains it all: The Pixar Theory.

The Pixar Theory suggests that every Pixar movie ever made takes place in the same universe, and on one giant timeline. The theory was developed in 2013 by Jon Negroni, a writer/blogger who has written articles about the theory for websites like Huffington Post, Mashable, Slate, and Moviepilot, and that’s only a few of them. He even has a podcast, a book, and a serial novel called, The Pixar Detective. This complex and amazing theory will contain multiple spoilers for these movies, so you’ve been warned. Now, get ready to go to “Infinity and beyond!”

The Theory’s timeline had originally started with Brave and ended with Monsters Inc. or Brave again, depending how you look at it. Set in the dark ages of Scotland, Brave is the only Pixar movie that explains why animals in Pixar movies will sometimes act like humans. When the main character of the movie, Merida, meets a witch and asks her to use magic to change her fate, her mother is turned into a bear. We also see the witch disappearing each time she passes through a door, making us believe that she may not exist. This information may seem strange and irrelevant now, but it’ll make sense later. Back to Brave: Merida’s mother is restored to her human form by the end of the movie, but we learn that this magic has been used on one other person: turning the person into a bear, with a more permanent result. While these are the only two cases in the movie, it’s safe to assume that the witch has used the magic on other animals before. Over the coming centuries, the objects and animals that were experimented on would evolve, thus creating a power struggle between humans, animals, and machines.

The three movies in the human-animal relationship are Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, and Up, in that order. You may have noticed I’ve left out A Bug’s Life, but I’ll explain later on. In Ratatouille, we see Ramy the rat’s desire to cook. Even though he’s a better chef than pretty much any human, cooking is only done by humans. By the end of the film, he finds his way to success when he befriends a small group of humans. But the villain of the movie, Chef Skinner, just disappears. Where he went we’ll never know, but what if his knowledge of the animal intelligence were to make its way to Charles Muntz, the villain of Up? In learning about animal intelligence, Muntz creates the dog collars and realizes that dogs are smarter than expected. The dogs are set free by the end of the movie since Muntz has died, and again, we don’t know all the details, but as the humans begin to cross the line, we see the animals increasingly resenting humans. To develop new technology, the see the humans enter an industrial revolution. We see it in the beginning of Up, as the faceless corporation Buy-n-Large (BNL) forces Carl to give up his house. Sound familiar? Buy-n-Large is the corporation that takes over earth in Wall-E and forces the whole human population to evacuate to space. Still not ringing any bells? If not, you can watch “History of BNL”to refresh your memory. Oh, and don’t forget that you can use BNL batteries to power your Buzz Lightyear, or to read BNL’s news article about the sea in Finding Nemo! Coincidence? I think not. The movie focuses most on the animal’s perspective is Finding Nemo, which adds to the evidence of the hatred of animals and humans.

Moving on to humans versus machines, The Incredibles is the first movie that introduces artificial intelligence. Syndrome,the villain of the film, commits mass genocide on all the superheroes using an A.I. called the Omnidroid, until it goes rogue and starts killing everyone. This raises the question as to why machines want to get rid of humans in the first place. We know that animals dislike humans because the humans are destroying the earth, but what motives do the machines have?

That’s where Toy Story comes in: we then see how toys are used and discarded. And over the span of the three movies, we see how toys start displaying resentment towards their past owners. In Toy Story we see Buzz and Woody rise up against Sid, in Toy Story 2 we see how Jesse hates her old owner, Emily, for donating her, and by Toy Story 3, Lotso just despises the human race. Despite all this hatred, the toys need humans for energy and fulfillment. I’m not saying the toys are 100% machines, but maybe they are an evolved form of the A.I. from The Incredibles. It’s possible considering that The Incredibles takes place sometime in the 1950’s or 60’s, 40-50 years before the events of the of Toy Story (1990 – 2010). This also gives the A.I.’s time to rise up and create Buy-n-Large. The creation of Buy-n-Large triggers an industrial revolution, which eventually leads to the pollution of Earth. In a last ditch effort to save the human race, the machines put all the humans on the Axiom and sent them to space. Once on the spaceship the machines make sure that the humans have to depend on them for everything, treating the humans like they had treated the machines, like toys.

With the humans and most of the animals gone machines are left to take populate Earth, this is the era in which Cars and Cars 2 (and Planes, but I’m not going into that since it’s the same concept) takes place. Some people have argued that Cars couldn’t take place during this time because there’s no sign of pollution during any of the movies, but by looking closely at Wall-E, we don’t see the world during this time period, so we don’t know how polluted the world is. We do know that humans have existed in the past, because of the places visited in Cars 2: Europe and Japan. The next question is, how did Wall-E become the last robot on Earth? We don’t exactly know how the machines died but it’s safe to assume that they simply died off from lack of an energy source, and because they became so disconnected from humans. That’s how Wall-E is different: he remembers the time where machines and humans lived in peace before the pollution. Even though it’s been 800 years since the humans left, his fascination with human culture and friendship with a cockroach is what helps him maintain his personality and find fulfillment. It’s the reason why and how he pretty much saves humanity and rebuilds society. So what happens next? The answer is A Bug’s Life, yes this movie takes place after the apocalypse. In the end, credits of Wall-E we see the tree from the movie being planted and how it grows and it looks very similar to the main tree in A Bug’s Life. Plus, there aren’t many humans left, hence why they wouldn’t be in the movie. The bugs have cities, their own machines, bars, they know what a Bloody Mary is, and even a traveling circus, which shows us that humans had an influence on their culture and evolution.

Speaking of species evolving, we are left with monsters. Where could they of come from? Its very possible to believe that they were animal who were mutated by disease and evolved enough to replace the humans. Some have pointed out that the college in Monsters University was founded in 1313, but it’s possible that the monsters could’ve started their own calendar. That would make sense as to why it’s so dangerous for monsters to have any form of human contact, the doors they use bring them to the past, thus not wanting to face the effects of changing the past. They also rely heavily on humans screams for energy, much like the A.I.’s. That’s until Boo comes along and changes everything, and in a way, starts everything. After her adventure with Sully and Mike, all she wants to do is get back to “Kitty”. As she grows up, she searches for ways to reunite with Sully and along the way she goes back in time and discovers magic. Using this magic, she becomes a witch, the witch from Brave, to be exact. As I mentioned earlier, we see the Witch disappearing though doors, much like how monster to visit children. If that doesn’t convince you, The witch is also seen making wood carvings of the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story, turns people into bears because they resemble Sully, and probably the most obvious we see she also has a drawing of Sully in her house in Brave. Thus making Boo’s love for Sully is the foundation of the Pixar Universe, showing that love of different people, ages, machines, and even species finding ways to live on earth in peace. That is the Pixar Theory.

Being As An Ocean is a post-hardcore/melodic hardcore band from Alpine, California. The band was formed in 2011 and is currently still active and making new music under the record company, Equal Vision. They were originally formed when Tyler Ross, Ralph Sica, Joel Quartuccio, and Shad Hamawe left their previous band, Vanguard, because they were looking for a different sound. The demo versions of two songs, “The Hardest Part Is Forgetting Those You Swore You Would Never Forget”, and “Humble Servant, Am I” that appeared on their debut album, “Dear G-d”, were streamed as two singles on the band’s myspace page on January 4, 2011.Originally, they had their guitarist write the entire album as soon as they formed. Later, it was fully tracked in an old hotel called, “The Palms”, and was then later sent to Brian Hood to be mixed and mastered. “Dear G-d” received overwhelmingly positive reviews. After its release, they toured over 20 countries including Canada, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The lyrical content of this album in particular is arguably very Christian. While many critics assert that the band is a Christian band, the band has said several times that they’re just Christians who love to make music. In 2013, Shad Hamawe and Jacob Prest left the band due to personal reasons, and their desires to step away from the intense touring schedule. The members who still remained started to record some material and also held auditions to recruit new members. The band recruited Connor Dennis, the former drummer of the hardcore punk band, Sleep Patterns, and Michael McGough, guitarist of the band of post hardcore band, The Elijah.

With these two new band members, they released their second album, “How We Both Wondrously Perish”. Lyrically, musically, and vocally, this album surpasses the last one. They recorded the album in Atlanta, Georgia at “Glow in the Dark Studios” and it was released on May 6, 2014. McGough was the biggest addition to BAAO in all the best ways from his playing to his singing. Quartuccio’s vocal delivery on this album drastically improved, but over all, he is very well known for his passionate, yelled vocals and the spoken word poetry usually infused with the band’s music. Shortly after it’s release, the band stated they were working on a new album to be released later in 2015. They released the main single, ‘Little Richie” and soon after they released their self- titled album.

On this album, the lyrics rip through listeners’ hearts: ‘We still defile and abuse the innocent/Like items to be sold or owned/Slavery and prostitution is no place for a nine year old”(Death’s Great Black Wing Scrapes The Air, “Mediocre Shakespeare”, 2014) and “A loving marriage from the outside, but oh,/ how ferociously he’d hit her/Richie stood by the bleach white bedside/Ma held his face in her hands while he cried”(Little Richie, “Being As An Ocean”, 2015). Overall, this is possibly the best and most authentic band in the music scene today. Check them out; you won’t regret it one bit.

Kpop (Korean pop) is a music genre associated with South Korea. It’s basically pop music in Korean, and less lazy. There is almost always a specific and original dance routine to each song (not including ballads), which fans learn. The songs can range from cute, sexy, angsty, etc./ or be a combination of all. Kpop is not to be confused with non- pop music. Kpop isn’t the only genre of music in Korea, it’s just the one that’s most well known amongst Korean music.

The Korean music industry is ruled by the Korean government. They approve all official idols. The top three most well known agencies are JYP, YG, and SM. They tend to have eccentric personalities. Korean people tend to look on the companies as well, because they tend to be quite comedic, rich, and eccentric men. And they sometimes get involved with each group’s reality show. These companies also have their hands in a lot of other industries as well; food, sports, modeling, management (for celebrities), etc.

JYP
They hold the contracts to some of the biggest Kpop stars in the industry. For example, JYP owns 2pm (boyband), Miss A (girl band), Wonder Girls (girl band), Got7 (boyband) and a lot of others. More than that he holds artists that are in hip hop, R&B, Electronic, Dance, and Rock as well. Run by Park Jin-Young. The company is named after his initials. (In Korea and in a lot of other Asian countries the last/ family name is first. But he chose to put it first name to last.)

YG
Again named after the company owner’s initials, Yang Goon. Has artists in all the same genres, but started its company roots with hip hop. His personality is somewhat shown when his group BIG BANG (boyband), in an interview where they do impressions of him and talk about his behaviors. They mention his new want for attention. He now makes public appearances on TV, when previously he had refused to be shown on camera for the past couple of years.

SM
Founder, Lee Soo Man, (again with the initials thing.) He owns a large amount of the biggest Kpop girl groups. Girl’s Generation, f(X), Red Velvet, and BoA. And boy bands; Shinee and EXO. Some of these groups have around for roughly a decade and still look perfectly youthful, and execute dance routine with experience and grace. Girls Generation didn’t even go through a too terrible 2000’s faze, like most other artists.

Sometimes proper management is questioned, but that’s up to everyone’s own opinion.

Last weekend, Big Apple Con, a comic book, art, sci-fi, and toy convention took place. The convention was located at the Hotel Pennsylvania, which is across the street from Penn Station.

In 1996, Frederic Greenberg, host of Great Eastern Conventions cancelled his show. Mike Carbonaro, with Metropolis Collectibles CEO, Vincent Zurzolo, quickly planned a show to replace it. Over 4,000 people attended. The show was a huge success and so were the shows that followed.

On March 5th, the convention was held again. In my opinion, it was a great show. I bought and sold vintage comics for the duration of the show. There was also cosplay. Cosplay is basically like dressing up for Halloween, except that it is superhero, comic, movie and pop culture themed. Some people spend hours and hours of time making their costumes. For some of us who are lazy, we buy costumes which can cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars for the sake of authenticity. There were panels where people held discussions about a specific predetermined pop culture theme, this along with comics, of course. There were creators/artists/writers/actors/ and other celebrity guests.

This convention was definitely a great opportunity for fans to make friends and meet new people along with reestablishing old relationships. It is enjoyable and I hope more people will get to experience it in the coming years.

Diversity within the genre of hip-hop is a luxury not often appreciated. Similar to other music genres, different subsets have distinguished themselves, but rap is the only to have sounds exclusive to location. Different cities adapt their respective preferences, whether it be rhyme delivery, use of inflection, utilized tone, or even subject matter. Although every city has its exceptions, most tend to follow the mold created by the surrounding environment. Just as distance between areas allow the development of different cultures and behaviors, rap has its own separate corners each directly influenced by local issues and lifestyles.

Houston: Houston is widely known for its heavy utilization of the boom-bap sound. Known for the drunken quality of its rhythms, producers often use slower drum kits never going past the quarter note level. One may ask, how did this slurred and trippy audiology establish itself in Houston? One direct cause may be the glorification of lean. Lean is a concoction ideally made up of prescribed cough syrup (promethazine codeine) and vodka or sprite. The effects include feelings of euphoria along with motor-skill impairment and lethargy to the point of feeling dissociated with one’s physical body. Houston rappers wanted to channel this same euphoria into their music, creating the slow boom-bap sound that Houston has come to embody. This is seen in work such as Chamillionaire’s “Ridin’ Dirty” as well as in the discographies of artists like Paul Wall, Pimp C, Mr. Mike, Baby Bash, and Kirko Bangz.

Eric B and Rakim of New York

New York: New York, the birthplace of hip-hop, has one of the genre’s richest histories. It is undeniably difficult to draw parallels between groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Pro Era. However, it would be a crime to ignore the fact that the city of New York itself is central to what New York rappers talk about. Hip-Hop in the Big Apple is territorial. Pro Era went so far as to create the Beast Coast movement. New York artists are constantly shouting out their respective blocks, boroughs, or neighborhoods. Any rapper from the South Bronx will make it known that’s his hood. The same goes for Jamaica, Harlem, Flatbush, and so on. This characteristic can be attributed to the fact that anyone raised within New York City lives and breathes alongside the city itself. The city is its own being, and why wouldn’t one mention a childhood friend?

California-Compton: Compton is the site of hip-hop’s mainstream revolution, headed by the N.W.A., who made the most of their opportunities with their raw honesty in the 90’s. Ever since, Compton has sought to speak on the issues plaguing its citizens as accurately as possible. Whether it be political injustices or the issue of growing gang violence, Compton artists put it all out on their tracks. This sense of social and political awareness is unique to the MAAD City, and even today’s artists from the area have sought to uphold the example set by N.W.A. With artists like Kendrick Lamar, Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock, The Game, and Vince Staples all verbally bleeding out on their instrumentals, it is safe to say Compton hip-hop is in good hands.

Bay Area: Bay Area rap has only recently grown in popularity, seeing how most Bay Area artists are underground, or still on the come up. This particular region has developed a culture very different from the traditional urban scene, making use of a more breathy tone and allowing the instrumentals to be the central point of attention. These more ‘withdrawn’ vocals are a result of the welcoming and pristine appearance of suburban environments. Bay Area artists try to implement these misconceptions into their works. This being said, artists like Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Sage the Gemini, IAmSu!, and the HBK Gang are all at the forefront of the Bay Area’s rise, speaking to the flaws of suburbia and the more subtle self-destruction enacted within this perceived paradise.

Chicago: It would not be far from the truth if one said that Chi-town is married to the glorification of violence. Chicago is referred to as “Chiraq” by its own residents. If that doesn’t speak for itself, it would help to bear witness to the content put out by Chicago’s artists. Chief Keef, Lil Durk, BJ the Chicago Kid, Fredo Santana and countless others constantly give voice to a central theme of firearms. Hip-hop has always been known to encourage pride and ego. Chicago rappers pride themselves in their aggressive natures, as that is the means to validation in the environment. It doesn’t help that access to guns is always an inviting opportunity, seeing how even children in their pre-teens walk around strapped. However, it should be noted that many other artists have made an active effort to go against the mold set by the city. These include Chance the Rapper, Mick Jenkins, Lupe Fiasco, and Common.

Atlanta artist, Raury, performing.

Atlanta: Atlanta could be considered hip-hop’s “lab” or testing ground. Especially as of recent, Atlanta has been testing the boundaries of the genres. Fortunately, this has not hurt the success of the city’s artists. Artists like Future, Young Thug, and Rich Homie Quan have patented the ‘rap mumble’, which entails low and rapid vocals that could be difficult to understand. Other artists and groups like Migos have made use of the machine-gun flow. This style has rappers spitting at a set rhythm with very few breaks in the flow. And then there are those who implement southern soul into the genre, creating a smooth and effortless vibe. Big K.R.I.T. and Raury are great examples of this subset within genres. Taking all this into consideration, Atlanta is easily rap’s most diverse city, and collaborations between its artists are consistently revolutionary.

Hip-hop, as a collective, cannot be denied its diversity. Progression and additions to the genre are guaranteed and will continue to satisfy the cravings of hungry listeners.

Heidi Klum’s dress looks like it came out of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother’s closet but there was nothing magical about this dress other than that. Sorry, Heidi.

Amy Poehler

Are those my grandmother’s curtains?

Nope, it’s Amy Poehler in a dress made out of my grandmother’s curtains. The only thing to do to help this dress is to burn it.

Stacy Dash’s unnecessary cameo

“Looks like we’re gonna have to make a cameo at the Val party”- Cher, Clueless

The Clueless star should’ve just stuck to cameos at valley parties with her on- screen bestie. Dash was recently in the news for wanting to end BET and Black History Month. So, when she walked on stage as “director of minority outreach” as Chris Rock said, the only funny thing about this joke was Chrissy Teagan’s reaction.